Gemini – Wall Street employees are migrating en-masse to the cryptocurrency industry, with Gemini recently picking up Robert Cornish, a former Chief Information Officer of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
This news comes after the New York-based exchange issued a press release on July 6th, which gave details regarding the hire. Cornish will be Gemini’s first-ever Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and was hired in a move to help focus Gemini’s technology and strategy teams.
Cornish doesn’t come empty-handed, as he has served as a Wall Street technology expert for the better part of two decades. He has worked with the International Securities Exchange in the past, often working on IT related jobs as an executive.
With this move to Gemini, Cornish leaves his most recent post as the Chief Information Officer at the NYSE. Seeing that he would move away from such a respected role goes to show how much promise he sees in Gemini and the cryptocurrency industry in general.
Tyler Winklevoss, one of the Winklevoss twins and Chief Executive Officer at Gemini, gave a comment regarding Cornish, stating:
Rob will ensure that Gemini continues to deliver the best platform experience to our customers as possible and set the standards of excellence for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole. Rob is globally recognized for his abilities in leading high-performing engineering teams, his expertise in exchange and matching-engine architecture, and running high-throughput platforms that are both secure and resilient.
According to the aforementioned press release, the former CIO at NYSE will be taking the lead of three teams at the exchange and will be working to implement Nasdaq market monitoring technology.
The so-called ‘SMARTS Market Surveillance’ technology will allow Gemini to better manage the multitude of order books on the platform, ensuring that the XBT (Bitcoin) future contract on the CBOE exchange is accurate.
It has become apparent that Cornish will be an integral aspect of Gemini’s ambitious expansion plans.
Gemini And Institutional Involvement
It has been widely speculated that Cornish was hired to help Gemini secure a foothold in the growing institutional environment around the cryptocurrency industry. With recent news arriving regarding institutional platforms like Coinbase Custody, Circle Trade, and Blockchain Principal Strategies, it would only make sense for Gemini to join this growing sub-industry.
Many call 2018 ‘the year of institutional investment’, and many hope that Gemini will play an important role in this move towards traditional firms, by helping to bring further legitimacy and interest to the cryptocurrency industry.
‘The Great Migration’: Wall Street Employees Move to Crypto En-Masse
Despite declining prices, the cryptocurrency industry has seen an influx of talent from traditional markets. Kraken, another prominent U.S-based exchange, recently hired Steve Hunt from Jump Trading, despite the firm moving into the cryptocurrency industry recently. Hunt is now the VP of engineering at Kraken, coming with experience as a technology expert in the traditional market space.
Head of the Facebook Messenger application, David Marcus, was appointed to a board position at Coinbase. Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, chalked up the hire to Marcus’s experience leading Paypal as its president, leading the payment company’s expansion.
Mike Novogratz mentioned this so-called migration in an interview with Bloomberg, stating:
Young kids often float to the excitement (crypto), but I really see unbelievable talent going into this space. And the best programmers at places like IBM are leaving to go work in more dynamic places like Consensys.
As the cryptocurrency industry continues to expand, it will become even more common that Wall Street executives, or high-profile employees from the traditional markets, will look for entry points into the crypto space.
